The Secret of Grimmauld Place
by Midnightzstorm and Kedavra
Summary: Ron and Hermione spent one month without Harry at Grimmauld Place. This is a filler of what happened between them, Sirius, and the Weasleys, from the end of the Goblet of Fire, to the beginning of the Order of the Phoenix.


Author's Note: Ron and Hermione spent a month at Grimmauld Place together. You can't seriously expect us to let that go can you? Spoilers for the beginning of OotP. We're going to make a mad attempt to finish this before school starts. -Kedavra  
  
Disclaimer: We don't own anything besides bits and pieces of the plot. All characters/settings belong to JK Rowling.  
  
Chapter One  
  
He really would miss Hogwarts. It hadn't occurred to him until this moment, standing in the living room of the Burrow, that this summer would be different. Somehow leaving Hogwarts had changed everything. Hogwarts with its protective spells, shielding walls, and the promise of the most powerful wizard in the world just a heartbeat away, what was the Burrow, really, to stand up to the might of You-Know-Who? And it was so easy to ignore the threat of the most evil wizard in the world when no one else knew. Surrounded by chattering students who didn't know or refused to believe the truth, the threat seemed so far away. And suddenly it wasn't anymore. Everyone here was painfully aware of the circumstances.  
  
"Hello all! Had a nice trip? Sorry but I'm terribly busy with work at the moment. See you at dinner!" said a falsely cheery voice.  
  
Well, almost everyone, thought Ron bitterly, glaring at Percy. Ron lugged his trunk behind him as he climbed the staircase, quite happy to hear the crack of apparition behind him, which meant that Percy had gone to the Ministry of Magic.  
  
Ron unpacked his things from his trunk, pinning his Chudley Cannons poster onto the wall. He was lying on his bed, watching the Chudley Cannons fly, when Fred and George barged in.  
  
"You know, there's this thing that most normal people do. It's called knocking," complained Ron, rolling his eyes.  
  
"Shut it, Ron," said George excitedly, "or we might not tell you what we just overheard."  
  
"What is it? Has it got to do with You-Know-Who?" Ron asked eagerly.  
  
"Shh!" hissed Fred. He shut the door quickly behind him with a soft click. "Mum'll be done talking any second."  
  
"Who's Mum talking to?" Ron demanded impatiently, lowering his voice slightly. "Why're you two whispering?"  
  
"Shut your hole!" Fred whispered vehemently as he pressed his ear to keyhole. "Mum's talking to Dumbledore. We left a. well a new invention of ours on the table by accident. Mum, er, found it and was about to throttle us when Dumbledore's head popped into the fire. We listened on the stairs for a bit so she couldn't see us. But Dumbledore was about to leave so we had to run for it. We reckoned we'd be safe up here."  
  
"Uh-oh, here she comes now," George muttered.  
  
"GINNY! Have you seen Fred and George?" Mrs. Weasley called from below them.  
  
"No mum," said Ginny. And the footsteps continued to pound they're way up the staircase.  
  
"Hide!" whispered Fred frantically, diving under Ron's bed.  
  
George turned to Ron. "One word about us and I'll accidentally mistake you face for a bludger next time we play Quidditch," he threatened before scrambling under the bed after Fred. Just then the door burst open.  
  
"Where are they?" stormed Mrs. Weasley fixing Ron with a suspicious glare. Ron was finding it very hard to take her seriously as Mrs. Weasley was sporting purple skin, blue hair, green teeth, and several other interestingly colored body parts.  
  
"Where are who?" asked Ron, in what he hoped was an innocently curious voice.  
  
"Fred and George! Where are they Ron?" she demanded.  
  
Ron repressed a snort of laughter and answered, in an all too even tone, "I haven't got a clue."  
  
Mrs. Weasley peered shrewdly around the room with her newly peach colored eyes before retreating downstairs, still fuming.  
  
Once she was out of earshot, Ron burst into laughter, and the twins emerged from under the bed, grinning.  
  
"What the devil did you give her?" gasped Ron.  
  
"We didn't give it to her," Fred protested, managing to look insulted. "We simply, er, left it. in her goblet of water."  
  
"Color Switching Draft," announced George proudly. "Switches the color of your robes with the color of you skin, color of you skin with the color of you eyes, color of you eyes with the color of your-"  
  
"So what did you overhear?" Ron asked, finally controlling himself.  
  
"Ah yes, that," said Fred, drawing himself up and faking a snooty look by looking down his nose at Ron. "Top secret I'm afraid, sorry, can't tell you."  
  
Ron eyed them for a second. "Fine," he said coolly.  
  
"What?" choked Fred, caught by surprise.  
  
"I said 'fine'. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to tell Mum that 'top secret' bit of information about where you two are." He inhaled deeply as though about to yell down the stairs. "Mu-"  
  
George clapped his hand over Ron's mouth, eyeing him apprehensively. "Let's not be hasty, Fred. Surely we can tell our dear little brother?" he said, using his free hand to ruffle Ron's hair in an unnecessarily rough manner.  
  
"'Course," said Fred, looking equally nervous. "So long as he keeps his voice down."  
  
Ron felt a sense of self-satisfaction at having bested the twins. He pried George's hand from his mouth and gazed at the twins with a smug smile on his face, waiting to hear their story.  
  
"We didn't hear much," Fred admitted. "But we know Dumbledore's starting something called the Order of the Phoenix, top secret anti-You-Know-Who organization. He's already got headquarters set up, just needs to add some more extra precautions. Mum said as soon as that's done, we're going to go join them."  
  
"The whole family?" Ron asked.  
  
"Yeah," George answered. "Wonder what Percy is going to say about that. He's still banging on about lies Dumbledore's been spreading and how the Ministry is engaged in a noble struggle against such falsehoods." A sour look crossed George's face. "I'd like to see HIM in a noble struggle against a blast-ended skrewt."  
  
Fred opened the door a crack and peered down the stairs. "I reckon we'll stay here for a bit, at least until she manages to reverse the draft."  
  
Ron sighed and pulled out a bit of parchment and a quill, thinking he'd write a letter to Hermione telling her how Bulgaria was really a horrible place to visit. Where was that article he'd read in Which Broomstick about emotionally unstable and physically abusive professional Quidditch players anyway?  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Three days passed without word on when they would be joining the Order. Life at the Burrow went on as usual with the old ghoul banging in the attic, the garden gnomes stumbling dizzily back into the garden, and the fear in all the residents that Fred and George were not of age and permitted to use magic. Ron had written to Hermione and gathered that while she was indignant at his letter, she would not be going to Bulgaria. Dumbledore had come to tell Ron that under no circumstances was he to write Harry about You-Know-Who or "anything you might have overheard" (Dumbledore had winked at this, leaving Ron to wonder how exactly the headmaster knew Fred and George had told him about the Order of the Phoenix).  
  
Mr. Weasley and Percy apparated into the kitchen that day shortly before dinner. And so, to Ron's surprise, did Bill. But before he could ask what Bill was still doing in England, Ginny beat him to it.  
  
"Bill!" she cried, rushing forward to greet him as she hurtled down the stairs. "What are you doing here?"  
  
"Well, I came to watch Harry in the tournament with Mom," he said, giving his sister a hug and ruffling her hair affectionately. "But with the, er, situation, I decided to quit my job and take a desk job here. Dumbledore thought it'd be best."  
  
Ron noticed that Percy seemed a bit overly pleased with himself, even more so than usual. And sure enough, as soon as everyone had greeted Bill, Percy puffed up his chest and spoke.  
  
"I have exciting news from work," he said very proudly, looking around and waiting for someone to ask him what this 'exciting news' was.  
  
"What is it dear?" asked Mrs. Weasley.  
  
"I've been promoted," Percy announced. "Junior Assistant to the Minister of Magic, a wonderful job for someone only a year out of Hogwarts."  
  
The room was painfully silent and Percy deflated a little. "Well?" he asked hopefully. "Isn't that wonderful?"  
  
"O-of course, dear," said Mrs. Weasley, struggling to recover from the news. "It's just, well we thought your position at work wasn't entirely. a success. We weren't expecting for you to be promoted."  
  
"Well done Percy," Bill congratulated with a false smile.  
  
"Percy can I have a word with you?" said Mr. Weasley quietly. He led his third son into the living room.  
  
"Sit down, sit down," said Mrs. Weasley after they left. "Dinner's ready. They won't mind if we start a bit early."  
  
They had barely begun to eat their food when the voices coming from the living room began to escalate.  
  
"How dare you accuse the minister of that?" Ron heard Percy yell. "I have worked long and hard at the Ministry to get that position!"  
  
"Calm down Percy," Mr. Weasley said, his voice loud but without the infuriated edge that Percy's held. "I was merely suggesting that with Fudge so adamantly opposed to Dumbledore and with our family so close to him-"  
  
"I have nothing to do with that crazy old bat and neither should you," spat Percy.  
  
"That's uncalled for," Mr. Weasley argued. "And you should have respect for your elders."  
  
No one was eating anymore at this point. Even Mrs. Weasley was gazing anxiously at the door between the kitchen and the living room, straining her ears to catch the conversation.  
  
"Yeah, well you're one to talk," Percy hissed.  
  
"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Mr. Weasley his voice dangerously low.  
  
"It means, that ever since I've come to work at the ministry, I've had to struggle against your shoddy reputation!" Percy shouted. "It's your stupid muggle fixation that's held you back for all these years, and it's your stupid muggle fixation has kept us dirt poor!"  
  
Fred's fork clattered onto his plate. Both he and George made moves to get up, but Mrs. Weasley hissed "sit down!" at them, and they sank back into their seats, faces livid. Ron thoroughly wished he could get up and curse Percy so that his stupid horn rimmed glasses poked a hole in his big head. Instead, he gripped the edges of the table and listened to the argument.  
  
"THE POINT HERE IS THAT FUDGE IS TRYING TO USE YOU! CAN'T YOU SEE THAT?" Mr. Weasley bellowed. "You're blinded by this new power so much that you can't see the truth. You-Know-Who is back and the longer Fudge takes to acknowledge that Dumbledore's not lying, the more jeopardy he puts our whole world in!"  
  
"YOU HAVE NO PROOF!" Percy yelled back. "All you have is the word of some crazy, deluded teenage wizard and the support of a senile old fool!"  
  
"AS LONG AS YOU KEEP DELUDING YOURSELF YOU ARE PUTTING THIS FAMILY IN DANGER!" Mr. Weasley shouted.  
  
"WELL IF THIS FAMILY IS GOING TO SUPPORT DUMBLEDORE OVER THE MINISTRY THAN I DON'T WANT TO BE A PART OF IT ANYMORE!" Percy hollered. "I KNOW WHERE MY LOYALTY LIES, AND IT'S WITH THE MINISTRY!"  
  
There was a pounding of footsteps up the stairs and a bang as a door was thrown open. The shuffling from Percy's room told Ron that Percy was packing his trunk. Seconds later, Mr. Weasley opened the door to the kitchen, his face bright red, and took his seat at the table.  
  
An uncomfortable silence settled in the kitchen. Mr. Weasley began to eat, his face still scarlet, and the others followed suit. Minutes later, the clock made a winding noise as the hand labeled "Percy" spun to "Traveling".  
  
"Arthur," Mrs. Weasley began timidly. "Where's he gone?"  
  
"No idea," Mr. Weasley replied gruffly, taking another bite of potato.  
  
Mrs. Weasley watched the clock apprehensively. She gave a gasp as Percy's hand suddenly burst into flames. The ashes from the ruined hand drifted downward and landed at the bottom of the clock.  
  
Ron knew that Percy had always been the most annoying of his brothers but never had he thought Percy would say such things to Dad. Then again, Percy had always been so ambitious. Ron supposed he ought to have seen this coming earlier. Percy was bound to do a Crouch and throw away his family for the sake of the Ministry. Git.  
  
Mrs. Weasley's voice interrupted his thoughts. "I've got some news from Dumbledore," she said tentatively. "We're leaving the Burrow tomorrow to join the Order of the Phoenix."  
  
"Dumbledore's managed to secure a location then?" asked Bill.  
  
"Yes, he's just had the Fidelius charm performed today. He'll be along shortly after dinner to tell us all personally where headquarters is," Mrs. Weasley replied.  
  
"What's the Order of the Phoenix? Where are we going?" asked Ginny.  
  
"The Order is a secret organization devoted to stopping You-Know-Who from gaining more power," Mrs. Weasley explained. "Since the Ministry won't believe it, Dumbledore's taken his own precautions. We'll be staying in the headquarters to help tidy it up a bit. The place Dumbledore's found hasn't been inhabited for years."  
  
Ron's mind tingled with excitement when he made his way up the stairs to his bedroom after dinner. Tomorrow, he was leaving to join a top-secret anti-You-Know-Who organization. It was brilliant. He thought maybe it was just as well Percy had left tonight. Who knows what could have happened to the Order if Percy had told Fudge about them. But for the first time, he, Ron, was going to do something exciting that Harry wasn't. Maybe it was bad for him, as Harry's best friend, to be entertaining such thoughts, but a part of him couldn't help feeling special.  
  
A/N: Sorry it's not very original yet, but I promise it will be soon. Stay tuned for chapter two to meet the Order and our favorite heroine Hermione. 


End file.
